Leaders of the Upper Holmesburg Civic Association have a question for residents of Northeast Philly: would you like another public housing project in your neighborhood?
The UHCA folks are betting that the answer is “no.” In fact, they’re banking on it — or at least they’re trying to. Earlier this month, a board member of the civic group, Crystal Eiswert, launched a GoFundMe.com campaign to raise money in support of the “revitalization” of the former Liddonfield Homes complex at Torresdale Avenue and Megargee Street.
UHCA leaders announced the new fundraising campaign during the group’s monthly meeting on April 16 at St. Dominic’s Marian Hall.
Specifically, the civic group seeks to beef up its legal fund. It has hired an attorney to investigate recent dealings involving the empty 32-acre tract. And it may need to retain the lawyer further as the Philadelphia Housing Authority plots the site’s future use.
The Northeast Times has reported extensively on the Liddonfield site in recent years. In short, hundreds of public housing units occupied the site from the 1950s until 2010, when PHA demolished the apartment buildings. PHA launched a bidding process to sell the site. A group of locally based developers won the contract in 2012, promising to build athletic fields for Holy Family University along with college-style dormitories, retail shops and senior citizen housing. The developers failed to close the deal, however, prompting PHA to pull the plug on the contract in January.
“We were able to find an attorney to start doing some research on the previous (proposal) and documents associated with it,” UHCA President Stan Cywinski said. “We want to see where it’s going and how (the attorney) may be able to help us in the future.”
UHCA leaders think that the failed developers should be disqualified from any new redevelopment process. They also think that any new proposal should include open space. And nobody in the civic group seems to favor new public housing, beyond perhaps a small number of units restricted to low-income seniors or those in need of assisted living.
To access the fundraising campaign, visit the Upper Holmesburg Civic Association group on Facebook.com and follow the gofundme.com link, which is titled “Revitalize Liddonfield & Torresdale.”
Also during last week’s civic meeting, neighbors got some good news from the Tacony-Holmesburg Town Watch. The volunteer group recently expanded its patrol territory to include Upper Holmesburg.
Founded in 1982 as the Tacony Town Watch, the group is the city’s oldest of its kind, said the group’s president, Joe Nicoletti. It expanded its territory northward as far as Frankford and Solly avenues in 2007.
Meanwhile, the decade-old UHCA tried to organize its own town watch, but several efforts never sustained beyond a year or two. With summer on the way and outdoor activities expanding in the community, the Tacony-Holmesburg folks offered to do the job.
The organization seeks new volunteers who wish to patrol Upper Holmesburg, which includes the neighborhood north of Pennypack Creek, south of Linden Avenue, from the Frankford Avenue corridor east toward the Delaware River. Email to taconytw82@yahoo.com or visit www.tactw.org for information.
In an unrelated topic during the meeting, local resident Mike Tomlinson encouraged neighbors to take advantage of programming at the Holmesburg Branch Library, 7810 Frankford Ave. Tomlinson serves on the Friends of Holmesburg Library board.
About 600 children met Santa Claus there in December, while the library offers a variety of other programs including reading and science sessions and a “raptors” program focusing on birds. There are volunteer opportunities for adults inside the library and even pulling weeds in the garden, Tomlinson said. ••
